Put the Consipracy Theory Down and Walk Slowly Away From Your Computer...

Hey team. Just to counterbalance my previous comment on the possibility of something fishy going on with the communication cables being cut, here's another take on what could be happening over in the Mid-East. I am still leaning towards malfeasance of some kind but I think this is a pretty even-handed look of what's going on over there. From Wired.

"As a security guy, I'm paranoid, but I don't understand the threat model here. On the other hand, four accidental failures in a week is a bit hard to swallow, too. Let's hope there will be close, open examination of the failed parts of the cables."

My favorite among the comments:
"I really don't care what they find when they pull those cables up...

...as long as it isn't bite marks."

Text Toilet

The US probably isn't quite ready for this yet, but with Finland's cellphone penetration up over 100% it's a brilliant idea.

Use SMS to Unlock Public Restrooms

If you need to use the facilities, people just need to send the word "open" to a short code listed at the bathroom, and the door is unlocked remotely. If the room is vandalized, a short-term record of the phone number that unlocked the door prior to the vandalism can help authorities track down the vandals.

(via 4Info Mobile Search Blog)

The Internet is Down!

Shows what a fragile world of technology we live in...

Internet failure hits two continents

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
-Extensive Internet failure has affected much of Asia, the Middle East, north Africa
-Two undersea cables believed damaged, possibly by a ship's anchor
-It has caused major disruptions to business, television and phone services
-Several reports say damaged cable in the Mediterranean could take a week to fix

Spinning Woman: Left or Right Brained?

I was listening to someone say today that there's this cool new visual test that will tell you if you're a left or right-brained thinker.

Herald Sun Story
(read this first)

So, I took the above test and low-and-behold it tells me I'm a right-brained thinker, which didn't really jive with the descriptions they give. I definitely share more in common with the left-side.

As a natural skeptic, I found it preposterous that a "test" could tell you something like this.

So, I found a more scientific explanation and of course it's muddier than some "simple minds" would have you think:

Science Line Explanation

And lastly, I still can't see the spinning woman go counter-clockwise. So, I used this to help me:

The Answer

Ah, much better!

What brain side are you?

Counterpoint

Another side of the debate, from the other side of the pond.

I Hate Macs

"I hate Macs. I have always hated Macs. I hate people who use Macs. I even hate people who don't use Macs but sometimes wish they did. Macs are glorified Fisher-Price activity centres for adults; computers for scaredy cats too nervous to learn how proper computers work; computers for people who earnestly believe in feng shui."

Right of Way

Minor fender bender last night. Thought I'd draw out the scene with Skitch and see what the Towform jury thinks. (Cars anonymized to eliminate bias.)

Three-way stop at a slightly goofy intersection. Just after 6pm, mostly dark and slightly rainy. Cars are represented by the numbered dots (ignore the satellite image cars).

Car 1 and Car 2 reach the intersection and stop at the same time. (Car 1 may have been slightly first, but it's negligible and a virtual tie.) Both are signaling left turns.

Car 3 is approaching the intersection but has not yet arrived. They are signaling for a right turn. (I don't recall if the signal was on or not, but will assume yes for this exercise.)

Cars 1 & 2 are at a standstill for about 3 seconds. Car 1 slowly edges into intersection. Car 2 remains at the stop sign. Car 3 arrives at about this time.

Car 1 completes their left turn, and has a small accident with Car 3. Point of impact is approximately the black dot in the image.

Corner of the rear passenger-side bumper of Car 1 is scratched, while the front driver-side corner of Car 3 is dented.

Drivers exit to exchange pleasantries. Car 1 says "Three way stop, I was there first, my right of way." Car 3 says "Doesn't matter. I was taking a right, you were taking a left. Right trumps left."


Who would be the at-fault party?

The Internet was Formerly Retarded

Found this great article about how truly AWFUL the internet used to look WAAAAAAAY back in 1996. Some great screenshots using the WayBack Machine.

"...many of the best preserved ones were created by fast food and soft drink corporations because they were some of the earliest adapters of the internet. They viewed the medium as a chance for inexpensive advertising and invested dozens upon dozens of dollars into it. The results are tremendously humiliating."


"Additionally, very few web designers had even the most rudimentary of aesthetic sensibilities, and nearly half of them were clinically retarded."

iMovie is a dangerous thing

So I grabbed some footage and photos from a fishing trip to Mexico that had been sitting on my hard drive for a few years, fired up iMovie for the first time and 2 hours later here's what I did. Forgive the pacing and camera work. It was all done with my Fuji Finepix 3000.

Feedback on the iPhone Interface

Edward Tufte is reknowned for his books and articles on interface meets design meets data presentation. (search his site for the article PowerPoint and businesses)

Anyways, he just put up a posting on what the iPhone does right, and a few things he thinks could have been done better.

http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00036T&topic_id=1

(make sure to check out the video link in the article for an actual demo)

And speaking of interface, with the new moveable home page icons, here's my latest first page setup:

After going through several iterations, I've finally moved my frequently used icons to the upper-right hand corner. This provides quick access for my right-hand thumb.

Browser History Timeline

Geeky fun. But where is Mosaic?

Browser History Timeline

Another

Interesting name. But I sorta dig the logo...

Look Up Web For Me

Marcavage Strikes Again

We all know the Liberty Bell is no place for religious communists. :)

Macworld Prediction

Thought of this yesterday afternoon and wanted to get it "on the record" before the keynote. I have no insider information and have not seen this specific prediction elsewhere; it's just a personal guess based on the "There's Something In The Air" slogan and connecting a few existing dots.

-A MacBook (and/or the rumored subnotebook) with a built-in HSDPA modem for high speed data access on the AT&T network. It would leverage Apple's existing carrier relationships, give them a new slice of coveted subscription revenue, and simplify the usually clunky process of activating and configuring an aircard.

We'll see what develops soon enough. Feel free to mock or praise me in the comments.

All That Glitters

31 Minutes!

Glitz-Free Globes

The first Golden Globe of the night went to Cate Blanchett for her supporting role in "I'm Not There" and that pretty much said it all about the awards ceremony Sunday that was wiped out by the Hollywood writers strike.

Because Blanchett wasn't there. Neither was anyone present to accept the best drama award for "Atonement," the final award of the 31-minute, news conference-style fiasco that raced through 25 winners so fast, it was as if the Hollywood Foreign Press Association just wanted to get it over with.

Holy Grail In Action

We've talked about the Google drag-to-reroute feature before, but it blew me away to see how well it worked in practice.

My wife was on the 5 South headed to a baby shower in Costa Mesa. She texts me and says "Something's on fire. Billowing black smoke, traffic on the 5."

I hit SigAlert.com:


Uh oh, lanes closed. Plus...


Big accident, and that's the fire. Google Maps w/traffic:


And after one simple drag and drop:


"10E to 710S to 5S will get you around it."

Done in literally 90 seconds. What a difference 4 years makes.

PS: The authors of Towform do not condone texting while driving. Use a bluetooth headset.

User Determined Computing

Interesting thoughts on a soon to be released Accenture study (rightfully) claiming that most users home computer systems and programs make them better workers and more productive than the ones at the office.

User Determined Computing

Today, home technology has outpaced enterprise technology, leaving employees frustrated by the inadequacy of the technology they use at work. As a result, employees are demanding more because of their ever-increasing familiarity and comfort level with technology. It’s an emerging phenomenon Accenture has called “user-determined computing.”

I also like the dig the blogger takes at Accenture's website towards the end.

I wasn't hugely impressed with Accenture's own website, which didn't comply with the most basic standards of Web 2.0. For one thing, it's Flash-based, with no options for a quicker loading, HTML version. And the Flash doesn't load quickly. Secondly, a pop-up window greets you on your immediate arrival requesting your participation in a survey. Not a good start.

(via SvN)

Change the World

Bits and pieces of this have already been told, but an interesting "for dummies" overview of how game changing the iPhone really is.

The Untold Story: How the iPhone Blew Up the Wireless Industry

Fwd: Dash

Testing posts via email (by way of forwarding) from our correspondent
"live" at CES.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: derteufel
Date: Jan 9, 2008 1:36 PM
Subject: Dash
To: Jake of All Trades

Just got a demo of the Dash Express. Looks very cool, though I'm now
more excited about the community saved searches feature than I am
about the traffic.

MadTV iPod Ad Spoof

Spoofing Apple and Feist simultaneously:

Programming Crash Course

The code portions of this Daily WTF blog tend to be a little over my head, but I find some of the anecdotes on dealing with people and users to be hilarious. Case in point:

Could You Explain Programming Please

Cursor*10

Most clever little online game I've played in a long time.

Cursor*10

via Webware

Most Evil Game Ever

Mario Knockoff is the Most Evil Game Ever

I can't even try to expand on the title. Just watch.

My favorite is the stuff that happens at the level 3 flag (towards the end of the third video).

New iPhone Firmware 1.1.3

Since the majority of us have iPhones, I thought I'd post.

http://gizmodo.com/339055/full-video-demo-of-apple-iphone-firmware-113-features

What I like:

• Google Maps drop pin
• Multiple recipient SMS
• And moving around home page and dock icons (you can even create multiple home pages)

And yes, Google has finally returned the cell phone tower triangulation technology that last powered AT&T's friend finder. Why they just got around to it now, I'll never know.

Snorting a Brain Chemical Could Replace Sleep

Snorting a Brain Chemical Could Replace Sleep

In what sounds like a dream for millions of tired coffee drinkers, Darpa-funded scientists might have found a drug that will eliminate sleepiness.

A nasal spray containing a naturally occurring brain hormone called orexin A reversed the effects of sleep deprivation in monkeys, allowing them to perform like well-rested monkeys on cognitive tests. The discovery's first application will probably be in treatment of the severe sleep disorder narcolepsy.

Siegel said that orexin A is unique in that it only had an impact on sleepy monkeys, not alert ones, and that it is "specific in reversing the effects of sleepiness" without other impacts on the brain.

New Lost Experience ARG

Oceanic Air is Back...

www.flyoceanicair.com

And on a related note, the trailer for Season 4 is being shown in theaters and online:

Bart vs. Homer

Playing with Hulu and found a neat feature where you can create your own short clip from any episode they have and embed it online.



Quality is pretty decent, and features like this show they realize the need to retain the social aspects if they really want to be the "legit" YouTube.

Alexander Graham Theft

Book argues that Bell stole phone idea

In "The Telephone Gambit: Chasing Alexander Graham Bell's Secret," journalist Seth Shulman argues that Bell — aided by aggressive lawyers and a corrupt patent examiner — got an improper peek at patent documents Elisha Gray had filed, and that Bell was erroneously credited with filing first.

I found this line most intriguing:

Bell, not Gray, actually demonstrated a phone that transmitted speech. Gray was focused instead on his era's pressing communications challenge: how to send multiple messages simultaneously over the same telegraph wire. As Gray huffed to his attorney, "I should like to see Bell do that with his apparatus."

Scold the cell squawkers

Scold the cell squawkers

A woman at the Rose Cafe shouted her eyeglass order into her cell -- going into great detail about her family's medical plan (they have flexible spending; they'll pay after the first of the year). So I blogged her conversation, including her phone number, and she got calls from around the world: "Eva, your glasses are ready!" I'm guessing she has newfound respect for others' profound disinterest in her life.

Barry sure does. He shouted his number across a Venice Starbucks. I went home and called it: "Barry, I know everything about you but your blood type." Next time I saw him, he took his calls outside.

Smack The Penguin

It ain't elf bowling, but it ain't bad.

Happy Xmas to all...

Super Smack The Penguin

iPhone Hacking as Internship

Apple hires author of the unofficial iPhone SDK

Lucas Newman of Delicious Monster has been hired by Apple as an “iPhone engineer” according to a post from “Chief Monster” Wil Shipley.

Newman is an avid iPhone developer who worked on the first native iPhone game, Lights Off and helped iPhone Atlas develop their initial 5-step native application install guide back in August.

(Above is paraphrased because, to quote the second commenter on the original article: "Please proofread your posts. This one is utter gibberish.")

Related: Wired puts Jailbroken iPhone on top 2007 gadget list

Video from a Time Traveller

Okay, so this could be hoaxed. But its an intriguing story.

A Norwegian man was working on his kitchen plumbing when he claims he inexplicably travelled into the future and met his future self. Bonus: he has video from his mobile.

Yeah, that could be his dad, I guess. And the story is frustratingly light on the details - like...how did he get back? What did they talk about?

But interesting nonetheless. Maybe interesting enough for Jacob to dig up more...

Trajan

More at the Retire Trajan blog.

Social Enemies

Parody sites start anti-social networking trend

Tired of phony online friends? Make enemies instead. Riding on the popularity of social networks such as Facebook and MySpace, new Web sites are poking fun at online friendships that connect you to the people you like, by turning attention to the ones you don't.

"I didn't understand these fake-friend war chests that people were so busy building online," said Bryant Choung, a technology consultant who started Snubster last year.

Kevin Matulef, the creator of Enemybook, said the idea for his Facebook application started as a joke last summer when friends at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) were asking if someone was a real friend or a Facebook friend.

"It started basically as a satire, sort of a parody of some of the superficial aspects of Facebook and the connections that you have, but now it's kind of evolved and it allows people to express themselves via their dislikes," said Matulef, 28.

Snubster
Enemybook
Hatebook

More Copyright in the Internet Age

The debate around the bubble video is getting more and more interesting. Some of the best opinions from both sides:

TechCrunch

Misunderstanding Copyright Law And Ruining Everyone’s Fun

Fair Use Vs. Free Speech in the Internet Age


Plagiarism Today

Analysis on The “Bubble” Controversy

Update: Bubble Video Reposted)


Lane Hartwell (the photographer)

My statement regarding the “Here comes another bubble” video dispute

My statement regarding the new version of the video


The Richter Scales (the band)

Credit and "Here Comes Another Bubble"

DMCA Takedown of "Here Comes Another Bubble"

Announcing "Bubble" Version 1.1

Me too!

I think I've said this before, but the best side effect of Google's innovations is that they light a fire under Yahoo to stop being so stagnant.

Yahoo Maps Gets Drag-and-Drop Rerouting

Props to Yahoo for the comparison of old route vs. new. I also liked the rubber band effect on the drag, but have to agree that Google showing you the name of the street you're dragging onto wins out.

Now, when will someone give me my web based LineDrive directions back?

MacWorld Bloopers

Copyright Controversy

Controversy surrounding the video Bo previously posted about the tech bubble.

Misunderstanding Copyright Law And Ruining Everyone’s Fun

So the video that everyone has been talking about is history. It is the victim of a bullying tactic by a photographer and her lawyer. Once again, a perversion of copyright is being used to destroy art.

The video, set to the tune of We Didn’t Start the Fire by Billy Joel, mocked just about everyone in Silicon Valley as being part of a new technology bubble. But the video has now been taken down, because Lane Hartwell, the photographer who took one of the pictures that was included in the video, complained that she wasn’t paid for her work. She hired a lawyer, and the creators, Richter Scales, decided to take it down rather than fight that Hartwell had no right to stop them from using the image.

Helpful Help

This might be one of the worst website help articles I've ever encountered. I know MySpace shouldn't be required or expected to teach basic html to their users, but a little effort via description or simple tools would go a long way.

How do I add color, graphics, & sound to my MySpace Profile page?

• Simply go to "Edit Profile"
  
• Enter the desired HTML or CSS coding where appropriate.
  
• If you do not know HTML or CSS, you can reach out and make a new friend by asking someone who has color, graphics, and/or sound on their Profile page how they did it. People on MySpace are friendly and always willing to help, so just ask! This is a great way to meet new people!
  

Lenny Lynch

This should play well to our small audience...



More at LennyYoung.com

Word of the Year

This one's for Chris:

Merriam-Webster's word of '07: 'w00t'

Where are they now?

Jeeves' Retirement

Bye Bye Payphones

Um, what took them so long?

Also, remember this database from the Surfboard?

AT&T to Disconnect Pay-Phone Business After 129 Years

AT&T Inc., the biggest U.S. phone company, plans to leave the pay-phone business after 129 years as more people use wireless handsets to make calls on the go.

The first pay phone, installed in 1878, had an attendant who took callers' money, AT&T spokesman Michael Coe said. Inventor William Gray set up the first coin-operated phone in 1889 at a bank in Hartford, Connecticut.

At their peak in 1998, there were 2.6 million pay phones in the U.S., San Antonio-based AT&T said today in a statement. That number fell to 1 million this year, including the 65,000 phones AT&T has in 13 states.

Pay phones, especially those in booths, have played a role in U.S. pop culture for decades. Clark Kent started using them to change into Superman in the 1940s. In the 1989 movie ``Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure,'' a phone booth doubled as a time machine. In 2002, actor Colin Farrell played a man trapped at a phone by a sniper in the film ``Phone Booth.''

It's A Gas Gas Gas

Wis. drivers line up for gas at 33 cents

An employee closing Trig's Minocqua Shell for the night mistakenly entered the price of a gallon of gasoline as 32.9 cents instead of $3.299 on Monday night.

He left about 10 p.m., but drivers could still use their credit cards to buy gas.

Word of the bargain spread fast in the rural northern Wisconsin community, with 42 people buying 586 gallons of gas in an hour and 45 minutes. One person had pumped 27 gallons and two purchased 18 gallons.

"I was very upset that there's that many dishonest people," said store manager Andrea Reuland. "They knew there was a problem, and they took advantage of an employee's mistake and I think that's terrible."

Back to...

Back To The Future Flux Capacitor Replica

Three thoughts:

1. Guess what I want for Xmas...

2. $220? My word!

3. TFAW.com needs to work on their "related items" algorithm at the bottom of the page, as it seems to think any other movie starting with the words "Back To" is related to BTTF.

Shift Happens

A little long and slow, but interesting.

The Luxembourg broadband stat was especially surprising to my dial-up using self back in 2003...

glumbert - Shift Happens

The Chuck Norris Effect

Hilarious, but also pandering a bit if something like this can really have an effect on an election. Have to give them credit for the buzz factor though.

Chuck and Huck: GOP's Delta Force?

Here's a Chuck Norris fact you may not know. If Chuck Norris endorses you and appears in one of your campaign's TV ads, you take the lead in an Iowa poll and your Web server crashes.



(In Huckabee's defense, in the article he says "We didn't seek his endorsement, but we're sure lucky to have it.")

Friendship Bracelets Are the Next Big Thing!

Are we in another bubble?



I believe so, but it's being around to watch it.

(UPDATED 12/20 to new video link)

The Science of Santa

Santa Claus is coming to town -- for 34 microseconds

"We estimated that there are 48 people per square kilometer (120 per square mile) on Earth, and 20 metres (66 feet) between each home. So if Santa leaves from Kyrgyzstan and travels against the Earth's rotation he has 48 hours to deliver all the presents," he said.

"He has 34 microseconds at each stop" to slide down the chimney, drop off the presents, nibble on his cookies and milk and hop back on his sleigh, Larsson said.

The SMS Novelists

I can barely fathom this:

In Japan, cellular storytelling is all the rage

"In just a few years, mobile phone novels - or keitai shousetsu - have become a publishing phenomenon in Japan, turning middle-of-the-road publishing houses into major concerns and making their authors a small fortune in the process.

Remarkably, half of Japan's top-10 selling works of fiction in the first six months of the year were composed the same way - on the tiny handset of a mobile phone. They sold an average of 400,000 copies."

via TechCrunch (with inspiration from Kit)

From the Future

I know sports isn't usually on topic for our blog, but the technology bits and time travel undertones are quite Towformian...

A letter to the Junior High Sports Guy

DASH GPS device shows off Zillow API Mashup

I'm eagerly awaiting the release of the DASH GPS device and this little preview of it in action just made me want it all the more. I didn't realize they were making it open source.

Mobile GMaps & My Location

Great new pseudo-GPS feature in Google Maps For Mobile

Reminiscent of the old AT&T "Find Friends" technology we used to know and love.

New magical blue circle on your map

Plus, I'm starting to really love these new "demonstration" videos Google does when launching new features.

QL Fanfic Movie

The long rumored Quantum Leap "Bold Leap Forward" sequel series on Sci-Fi sill hasn't quite made it off the ground yet, but now someone is taking matters into their own hands:

QL Fanfilm: A Leap To Di For

Award Winning Filmmaker Christopher Allen has announced the title of his company’s next film production, a fan based effort to re-launch the popular “Quantum Leap” television series that ran on NBC from 1989 to 1993.

“I just want to re-launch the (Quantum Leap) series in some way or another. I don’t care about not making any money on this. It’s not about money... its about quality stories and characters people still care about to this very day. Above all else, it is ultimately for the fans.”

Watch the Teaser Trailer

High Compliment

From The Blog Readability Test

The Do Not What List?

This is great just for how brazenly ridiculous their loose interpretation is:

DirecTV Telemarketing

DirecTV is defending automated sales calls to Do Not Call List subscribers as "informational," and "not telemarketing." The satellite TV provider recently called customers to say: "Because you are on our Do Not Call List, we can't call you with all of our super-awesome special promotions."

Link includes letter to a customer from DirecTV lawyer explaining the reasoning:

Since our calls were informational in nature, and not telemarketing sales calls, they fall outside the scope of the Telemarketing Sales Rule and related federal and state laws and regulations governing telemarketing sales practices. As such, our calls did not violate any of these statutes or regulations.

Pas d'Internet pour vous

France Sets Sanctions Against Internet Piracy
Internet users in France who frequently download music or films illegally risk losing Web access under a new anti-piracy system unveiled on Friday.

The Truth About Viral Videos

A fascinating TechCrunch expose:

The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos

Gmail Interview (& Parody)

Interesting Lifehacker interview with Google's Product Manager in charge of Gmail.

Gmail Product Manager on IMAP and Greasemonkey

Strange aside:
Direct Lifehacker post links don't seem to be working in the new Tiger version of Safari 3.

Funny aside:
What if Microsoft Designed Gmail?

Windows Live Gmail

The Tryptophan Myth

My favorite iNet Thanksgiving question/answer pair:

Thanksgiving Myth: Turkey Makes You Sleepy

The sleepy-turkey myth lingers around each year because it sounds so logical.

Alas, it is only marginally true. What's making you sleepy after Thanksgiving dinner is any combination of booze, bad conversation and a carbohydrate-heavy meal, but not the turkey itself.

Turkey does have tryptophan. But all meat has tryptophan at comparable levels. Cheddar cheese, gram for gram, has more.

In essence, big meals with any food containing tryptophan can cause sleepiness. The real culprits are all those carbohydrates from potatoes, stuffing, vegetables, bread and pie. The massive intake of carb-heavy calories stimulates the release of insulin, which in turn triggers the uptake of most amino acids from the blood into the muscles except for tryptophan.

With other amino acids swept out of the bloodstream, tryptophan—from turkey or ham or any meat or cheese, for that matter—can better make its way to the brain to produce serotonin.

Bonus Thanksgiving Funny via JibJab

Kindle

Amazon's new EVDO powered (via Sprint) eBook, Blog, Newspaper, Magazine, and Wiki reader device.

Amazon Kindle

The next iPod? Or the next Newton?

Apple Newton
"Although the Apple Newton was produced for six years, it was never as successful in the marketplace as Apple had hoped. This has been attributed to two primary reasons: the Newton's high price (which went up to $1000 when models 2000 and 2100 were introduced), and its large size (it failed the "pocket test" by not fitting in an average coat, shirt, or trouser pocket)."

Capturing the Power of CAPTCHA

Stumbled into this via a Webware post about Southwest shutting down boarding pass sniping site Pass-a-Matic.

Re-CAPTCHA is a Carnegie Melon University project that repurposes those CAPTCHA verification boxes (last discussed by us here) to help digitize books.

The basic idea is to take words that optical scanners can't recognize, turn them into CAPTCHAs, and then use crowdsourcing ala Mechanical Turk to do the heavy lifting. It's all pretty clever.

More details here.

Take TV

Found this in a banner ad of all places...

This is an intriguing device that allows you to take video from your computer and play it directly to your tv. Great design - cool integrated USB/Remote control.

Annoying flash intro - skip right to the demo.

Know When To Say No

Cool SvN post on how to innovate by staying true to your ideas and not being bullied into being something you're not.

How opinionated companies get customers to live without floppy drives, assigned seats, credit cards, etc.

Examples from the story:

Southwest
"...in the case of Southwest Airlines, customers who value more of the amenities, policies, and procedures of the legacy carriers aren’t ever going to be passionate about Southwest. Customers who are passionate about Southwest don’t just value the low fares that open seating supports, but have come to expect and enjoy the organized chaos that the experience involves."

Apple
If you simply had to have a floppy drive, then that new iMac was no good for you.

ING
You want to open an account with a million dollars? Please find another bank. “Rich Americans are used to platinum cards, special services,” Kuhlmann told me. “The last thing we want in this bank is to have rich people making special demands. We treat everybody the same, which is how we keep things simple.”

It's not easy being Yahoo!

Interesting blurb of an article on Jerry Yang of Yahoo. Too short, but a good glimpse at his feelings on their history and future.

Yang: Being Yahoo CEO is a 'lonely job'

My favorite throwaway quote:

"Today I'm still not sure why we added the exclamation point."

!@#$

Swearing at work boosts team spirt, morale
Regular swearing at work can help boost team spirit among staff, allowing them to express better their feelings as well as develop social relationships, according to a study by researchers.

The pair said swearing in front of senior staff or customers should be seriously discouraged or banned, but in other circumstances it helped foster solidarity among employees and express frustration, stress or other feelings.

Best Google Design for SEO Traffic

Let's say that I want our blog to get traffic from people searching on how to get relevant SEO-optimized content that will show up on Google.

Well, I'd make sure to talk about Google and SEO plenty of times, and that we're the best at helping people get great SEO results.

I'd also provide an example of how the Google home page would look if it was SEO-optimized.

http://www.meangene.com/google/design_for_google.html

Of course, I would need to use some nifty AJAX call-out boxes to guide the user through the steps to creating a relevant, SEO-friendly home page that will get indexed by search engines like Google.

Now just wait several weeks and your site should be picked up by the Google spider and show up in search results when people are searching for "best google optimized SEO".


P.S. I should throw in the original pointer from Slashdot:

"Web developers increasingly grow weary of having to put so much effort into designing their sites according to the whims of the Google search engine. When the most important thing is 'getting indexed' it is increasingly difficult for web site designers to offer the simple, uncluttered user experience they'd like to. Reminiscent of the famed what if Microsoft designed the iPod box here is a humorous look at what would happen to that famed, clean, uncluttered look if Google had to design for the Google Search Engine."

At least they tried...

New beta version of MapQuest:

beta.mapquest.com

Unfortunately they still don't get it...

I know I've been a MapQuest hater forever, but it's always been with good reason. They were first, and they're the most popular, but they still just don't know how to do directions in a useful manner.

People want to redo a route easily with drag and drop. They want to start on a highway without having to fake it. They want simplified line drive directions. They want to find a pseudo neighborhood even when they don't really know what they're looking for. They want to easily skip streets they don't like, and be advised as to "why" something is the best route rather than fastest/quickest via a mathematical stairstepping calculation. They want the simplicity of a Line Drive visualization instead of every intricacy of a turn by turn. They want notes, landmarks, and street level views for visualization.

They want something better than MapQuest.

Google Maps is the best (true that double true.)

R&B

If Gary named iNetNow...

Research Bitch

Aside from the comedic value of the funny name, the voiceover pitch for the site is pretty interesting and not something I've seen before.

Banning the Bomb

Good idea in theory, but...

Experts doubt plan to block bomb recipes on Web

A European Union proposal to stop people from accessing bomb-making instructions online is fraught with technical difficulties, if not downright unworkable, Internet practitioners say.

"I do intend to carry out a clear exploring exercise with the private sector...on how it is possible to use technology to prevent people from using or searching dangerous words like 'bomb,' 'kill,' 'genocide' or 'terrorism,'" Frattini told Reuters in an interview earlier this month.

Rotten Neighbors

Stumbled onto this via Lifehacker and think it's an absolutely brilliant idea for a GMaps Mashup:

Rotten Neighbor

Not sure how accurately it's being used, but there's a grain of truth to every story, and a lot of these are hilarious.

If only LinkedIn had a similar feature for "reviewing" the unemployable...

Language Barrier At Risk

Interesting article on how the world's languages are fading away. Not sure if I'm more amazed at how many there are (were?), or how many are at risk. Both numbers are bigger than I expected.

Study finds languages quickly dying out

Half of the world's 7,000 languages are expected to disappear before the end of the century.

"We are seeing in front of our eyes the erosion of the human knowledge base."

Dial Directions

Dial Directions

Interesting new directions-by-phone service with a "why didn't I think of that" phone number.

Downsides are the fact that it's voice recognition and uses MapQuest for the actual directions, but reviews are positive and it uses some familiar tricks and tenants based on this WSJ review:

"It's smart enough to ask you if you know how to get to the highway, thus saving you from reading directions you already know."

"Symbols help to shorten the messages, like using "L @ Maryland Ave. SW" to tell a user to turn left at Maryland Avenue Southwest."

"While the mobile versions of these services are improving, the user interface of a cellphone isn't ideal for inputting addresses and extracting directions. Even smart phones with larger screens and full keyboards can be hampered by slow Internet speeds."

Visualizing Search Results

There's quite a few of these alternative search engines now ...quite a lot more than I imagined, actually.

This is an interesting collection of visually based search engines - The crystal one is particularly strange but ingenious somehow at the same time.

Heres a pic of a crystal visual search engine result.

25! :)

Happy Birthday, Smiley

Sept. 19, 1982
"I propose the following character for joke markers: :-) Read it sideways," Fahlman wrote. "Actually, it is probably more economical to mark things that are NOT jokes, given current trends. For this, use :-( "

And my favorite quote from the article:

"Good writers should have no need to explicitly label their humorous comments."

Steve's First Letter

Now we know where Steve Jobs learned his PR style:

Courtesy of www.geekculture.com

10!

Google, at age 10
On September 15, 1997 Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two 24 year-old Stanford University students, registered the domain name of "google.com."

WikiRage

Sort of a Google Zeitgeist for Wikipedia based on edit activity.

WikiRage

(via LifeHacker)

Google In The News

Google Founders’ Ultimate Perk: A NASA Runway
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/13/technology/13google.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
The famous founders seem to have acquired landing rights to a runway that NO other civilian planes can land at, and are only a few miles away from Google's headquarters. The articles says that NASA gets to run scientific missions on their planes, and thus the allowance. Hmmm, I want to see the results of those experiments.

In other Google news, it seems that some confidential Google plans to compete with FaceBook were leaked.

http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/09/video-leak-goog.html

They're allying some of their platform around the Google Reader. I haven't used the reader yet, but I may have to. And some interesting learnings at the bottom of the article:

• Two thirds of all RSS feeds only have one subscriber
• Google prioritizes more popular feeds polling every hour for updates, while the two thirds mentioned above are polled every 3 hours.
• The Google Reader back-end stores a staggering 10 terebytes of data from 8 million feeds

And of course, there's the Moon Prize they announced. I was at the first prize, so I'll definitely try to be at this one, if someone enters.

Daylight!

Things that make me happy:

MTurk + GEarth = Search and Rescue

Amazon is using their Mechanical Turk service to assist in the search and rescue for missing aviator Steve Fossett.

Got this email from Amazon:


Details of the task to perform are available here:

Steve Fossett Missing: Help find him by searching satellite imagery

I hadn't heard of it before, but TechCrunch has a story on how Amazon did something similar when Jim Gray was lost at sea.

Very interesting and noble use of crowd sourcing.

Nowhere

Great article on the origins of Lost and the Hollywood saga of the original creator.

Cast Away
Every time ABC runs an episode of its hit TV series Lost, Evanston's Jeffrey Lieber gets an onscreen credit and his bank account gets a nice pop. But the twisting tale of his Hollywood triumph has left Lieber feeling a bit ... well, lost.

Apple Adwords Prank

Man buys Google Adwords ad for "iphone price drop" and a comedy of errors ensues.

DYH isn’t funny?

Also interesting in how it shows the lack of basic fact checking when blogs become common news sources.

Bowling and NLP

A couple of random YouTube videos.

First, the winning entry for a guitar-usage competition. I was (and still am a little) a LEGO fanatic.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=gkyeFA8bPeU

Second, part of a show about a British NLP expert. Neuro-linguistic programming is what I'd call a minor form of hypnosis used to manipulate people to your desires.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZyQjr1YL0zg

And instead of worrying about what to get someone for a birthday, wouldn't it be nice if they REALLY wanted exactly what you wanted to get them.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=befugtgikMg

Not The Only One...

How I stumbled into this is an odd chain of RSS feeds, blogs, and Googles, but:

Unmatched Sock Wearers Unite

!!!

SMS Turns 15

This article has some neat trivia points and quotes even though it follows the overdone "SMS Speak Is Ruining English" theory. But the fact that our loyal friend the text message is about to turn 15 is borderline amazing.

OMG! TXT MSG turns 15!

Fun Fact:

"The British-based Mobile Data Association dates text messaging to December 1992, when a British engineer sent the message "Merry Christmas" to a colleague from a computer to a mobile handset."

Great Quote:

"There's nothing wrong with flip-flops, worn at the appropriate time in an appropriate way. But soccer players don't wear flip-flops in a game."

360° Light Field Display

A holographic display created using a spinning mirror. Very "Help me Obi-wan Kenobi" sort of feel to it.

Earthquake Lull?

Headline caught my eye, though this quote made me want to post it:

"Nature is very much like a 14-year-old boy; it's sloppy and lazy,"

L.A. in 1,000-year Earthquake Lull

When the hell are we?

So, exactly what time does a guy have to get up to see the lunar eclipse tonight?

SF Gate
For the wide-awake, a partial eclipse will start at 1:51 a.m. Tuesday and become total starting at 2:52 a.m. By 4:22 a.m., the total phase will be over, but then as the moon begins to emerge from Earth's shadow, another partial phase will begin. The eclipse will end at 5:24 a.m., just as the sky lightens at dawn.

Wired
The moon will start getting dimmer around 4am EDT, with peak shadow about an hour and a half later.

SF Examiner
The moon will just after 7:30 p.m. tonight but will not start passing through the weakest part of Earth’s shadow, or penumbra, until 12:52 a.m. Tuesday, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory.

Voice of America
The eclipse will begin at 0851 UTC and end at 1224 UTC.

KSBY
If you want to see the spectacular show, they say it will happen at approximately 1:52 a.m. and end at 4:22 a.m.

National Geographic
The eclipse will be visible in North and South America, Australia, and eastern Asia starting at about 3 a.m. PT on Tuesday...

Chico Enterprise Record
Just before 2 a.m. Tuesday the West Coast will witness an astronomical spectacle...

San Jose Mercury News
If you've got insomnia or the inclination to be awake about 3:37 a.m. - you should be able to see a coppery red hue on a shaded moon.

Canada.com
The partial eclipse begins at 4:51 a.m. ET. The moon edges gradually into Earth's shadow.
Total eclipse begins at 5:52 a.m.

LA Daily News
But the best view will be in the West, where it will be viewable from about 1:30-5:30 a.m.

Ventura County Star
...the total lunar eclipse that will be visible in Southern California in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, Aug. 28, from just before 2 a.m. to just shy of 3:30 a.m.

And don't get me started on these next ones. Daylight Time! Daylight Time!

Imperial Valley News
Totality begins at 2:52AM PST, and mid-eclipse occurs at 3:37AM PST.

Orlando Sentinal
The viewing begins shortly before 5 a.m. EST.

Bad Design in Everyday Life

Painfully true...and hilarious.

Bad Designs in Everyday Life

via SvN

Decision Tree

Time Travel Machine Outlined

Former coworker emailed this to me. Love being "time travel guy" in certain circles...

Time Travel Machine Outlined

Internet Knowledge Quiz

I got 82%. BoRyan will probably score better than me...



(Also note how the code to add this widget at the end of the quiz tries to sneak in a secret advertisement. Wonder if it's a bonus question to be smart enough to remove it before posting...)

Is Google Becoming Evil?

This one surprised me:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/08/20/google-disconnects-grand-central-customers/#comments

"So much for Grand Central’s “one number for life” promise. The company is turning off customer phone numbers and giving them new ones following their acquisition by Google last month...[a user received a notice] advising him that in 8 days his Grand Central number would be canceled and that he would be required to immediately start using a new number allocated to him."

Even worse is the Grand Central posting on their OWN blog on July 12, saying:

"One of the foundations of GrandCentral is the “one number for life” concept. When creating the company we thought about all the pain points of having a new phone number or a number that switches every time your life changes. Go to college? Get a new number. Buy a house? Get a new number. Change jobs? Get a new number. Not only is this a pain for you as you need to now memorize another number for yourself, but its even worse for your friends and family who have to keep up updating their address books to keep track of you. With GrandCentral as your only number, these problems go away."

This follows on the heels of Google removing access to DRM'd videos that one purchased through Google Video. Granted they gave credits to their Google Checkout service, but is that really acceptable given that you purchased the rights to view a video indefinitely?

Is it really impossible to make profits AND be good?

Sound Familiar?

Part of this article on the Netflix call center gave me a bit of a flashback...

At Netflix, Victory for Voices Over Keystrokes
"Ms. Funk, 36, said some people call because they are lonely. Her lengthiest call of that kind lasted 35 minutes. Others need basic help with their computers or with the Internet. Some people do not own a computer and call regularly to have a call center employee rearrange the titles in their queue."

The Truth About DRM-Free music?

Not sure I fully understand this, but interesting. Seems they'd be able to track popularity and how viral something is relative to it's original source, but getting it down to the individual user would be difficult and/or expensive.

Could Audio Watermarking Help Make MP3s Free?
Audio watermarking involves taking a song and manipulating it digitally to create an audio pattern that is unmistakable to the right software -- such as Activated's -- though undetectable by human ears.

The tracking technology allows advertisers to gather information about the consumer and the effectiveness of the ad. Such data, according to Silberstein, is so valuable that advertisers would be willing to pay five to 10 times rate of a regular ad for an watermarked ad. That data works particularly well with "call-to-action" type of ads, in which consumers, after listening to an ad, respond or click on a link to buy something or otherwise opt in to the advertiser's campaign, Silberstein said.

Towformian Tendencies Rewarded?

Both unbelievable and sad but true at the same time. Harkens back to the all too true (but presumably fake) quote: "All that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."

Bad bosses get promoted, not punished?
In the study to be presented at a conference on management this weekend, almost two-thirds of the 240 participants in an online survey said the local workplace tyrant was either never censured or was promoted for domineering ways.

"The fact that 64.2 percent of the respondents indicated that either nothing at all or something positive happened to the bad leader is rather remarkable -- remarkably disturbing,"

The authors advocated immediate intervention by industry chiefs to stop fledgling office authoritarians from rising up the ranks.

"The leaders above them who did nothing, who rewarded and promoted bad leaders ... represent an additional problem."

"As with any sort of cancer, the best alternative to prevention is early detection," they wrote.

Power Nap Zap

How to Sleep 4 Hours per Night
Zapping your brain with an electromagnet could do the trick. A good night’s sleep just takes too long. Scientists may soon be able to cut those eight wasted hours down to three or four—by waving a wand, more or less. The technique, transcranial magnetic stimulation, involves an electromagnetic coil that emits pulses of skull-penetrating, neuron-activating magnetic energy.

Off-beat idea for iPhone contact photos

Grab a camera and a plate of glass or just shove someone's face onto the surface of a scanner. Voila! When one of your contacts calls you it looks like they're trying to escape from the prison that is your iPhone, or the prison that is your AT&T contract or maybe more like Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book. Regardless, I suggest you stop drinking whatever it is you're drinking before viewing these photos.

4

I'm 3 days late, but Sunday was 4 years...

RIP

Sprint Gives Heisman

Hilarious, brilliant, CSRs dream, and PR nightmare rolled into one. I still can't believe they went through with this, especially given the suspect criteria used.

Sprint breaks up with high-maintenance customers
On June 29, 2007, Sprint sent letters notifying some customers that their service would be canceled by the end of July due to excessive calls to customer service.

"Our records indicate that over the past year, we have received frequent calls from you regarding your billing or other general account information," the letter reads. "While we have worked to resolve your issues and questions to the best of our ability, the number of inquiries you have made to us during this time has led us to determine that we are unable to meet your current wireless needs."